With the final days of 2012 upon us, many companies are looking forward to “great success” in 2013. Samsung is expecting to sell 510 million mobile phones next year, which would represent a 20 percent rise compared to 2012.

Of the 510 million mobile phones it expects to sell, 390 million will be smartphones with the remainder coming from the sale of feature/budget phones.

"There are some possibilities that smartphone demand will slow in general. But we are seeing new demand for devices using Long Term Evolution (LTE),'' said Kim Hyun-joon, an executive at Samsung's telecommunications division."

Samsung also announced that it intends to build 240 million devices at its Vietnamese factory, 170 million devices in China, 20 million in India, and 40 million devices at its Korean factory. Samsung also plans to spend $2.2 billion upgrading handset factories in Vietnam by 2020 to boost output.

"By offering better pricing to consumers in developing nations, we will find new growth. This will also enable consumers in developed nations like North America and Europe to buy our LTE devices at more affordable prices,'' said a Samsung official.

Analysts are predicting that Samsung will dethrone Nokia to become the top handset shipper in the world for 2012. Nokia has held that title for 14 years.

Nope, pixel density is always important, when did I ever say otherwise? Same with 3G and 4G, but I always knew it wasn't there because the parts weren't power efficient enough. LTE in 2011 meant very low battery life. When Apple decides to implement it its when it yields over 8 hours of LTE browse time, double that of the Galaxy series.

None of this is arbitrary. I know you look at things from a "fan" point of view, but some of us here look at things from a logical and practical point of view. It isn't about "this sucks until my team has it", it is about "this sucks because of technical limitations that will eventually get sorted out".

As for displays, pixel density, subpixel arrangement, and color accuracy are the most important things in a display. Higher resolution being the product of a larger screen is a questionable advantage, given that it is the result of a bigger screen that is not optimally ergonomic and comes down to personal choice.

In over a decade of owning laptops I never once bought a spare battery, why would I ever want to carry one around for my phone? Why carry a spare battery when my iPhone gets literally double the LTE browsing time of other high end Android devices?

SD card storage doesn't concern me either, the tradeoff between that and a smaller device is an easy one. Hey, my Kindles haven't had SD card expansion since the first generation, and I'm GLAD they ditched it, it made the devices much smaller and more portable. Again, I'm totally cool with it.

Sorry dude, I know those things mean a lot to you but I'll take smaller chassis, better screens, better applications, guaranteed vendor support for longer than the period of my two year phone contract, and awesome battery life over a replaceable battery and an SD card slot. Those things aren't valuable tradeoffs for me, sorry!

I get that you don't need it, but some people go on trips where its inconvenient to have to stop and re-charge. On those trips it is nice to bring an extra battery to remain connected with the world/work/whatever it is that you do with your phone. I get that you personally dont need an sd card, but I never considered your one phone or mine to drive anything. We are talking platforms and what drives sales (at least I thought).

Anyhow, I can see that you still insist on picking that one benchmark of LTE browsing that makes Apple look the best so you clearly arent ready to have a real unbiased debate about it. Apples battery life is good, and in most cases up at or very near the top, but you consantly cherry picking that one sort of outs you. Bummer.

Dude, how are singling out some of the most fundamentally important aspects of any mobile device (performance, battery life, developer support) cherry picking? Seriously?

And what sorts you out is your choice of words above:

quote: Come on TYP. There is good in you, I can sense it. Turn away from the dark side.

Your and many fans positions don't come from a place of practicality or objective analysis, it comes from some ridiculous ideological POV where "Apple is evil".

I didn't buy "Microsoft is evil" in the 90s and I sure as hell don't buy "Apple is evil" now. It is a ridiculous and entirely irrelevant argument, all that matters to me is the quality of the product and if it fits my needs. It is like that idiot Motoman who steers his customers into currently inferior AMD parts because "Intel is evil". Ridiculous!

I dunno, it is hard having rational discussions with ideologues and fans, and they're legion here.

And as for this:

quote: but some people go on trips where its inconvenient to have to stop and re-charge.

There are products from companies like Mophie and others if you really need that sort of thing (cases and power stations). Either way, the need for a replaceable battery is seriously diminished when you're getting literally double what other comparable products get. It'll get there for everyone else though once they get newer tech in, don't you worry.

See, this is what I was talking about. Check the link below. I know we both trust Anandtech. Let me point out 2 things.

1. You keep comparing browsing time, which is one area Apple excels. Look at ALL of the charts. The iPhone 5 has even LESS talk time than the GS3, but you "cherry picked" that right out didnt you? Here is the full picture on this. The iPhone5 has LOWER battery life for talk time, better battery life for web browsing and comparable on other measures.

2. Even with the web browsing, you keep picking the GS3 as if its the only phone out there. For whatever reason, it has poor performance even against other Android phones on web browing. The HTX One X has almost double whathte GS3 has too. So you are cherry picking the best of the iPhone data and the worst of Android and calling it fact. Its not a fact. Here is the facts on web browsing. The iPhone 4 has the best web browsing of the phones tested, but only by a couple percent compared to the HTC OneX... NOT DOUBLE

"We are going to continue to work with them to make sure they understand the reality of the Internet. A lot of these people don't have Ph.Ds, and they don't have a degree in computer science." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis